Minutes - 20050926 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

request far a 1000-student high school in that location, the current costs and land costs were higher than what was allocated. The School Board asked for $34 million dollars and the Commissioners allocated around $30 million. The School Board then came up with an 800- student school expandable to 1200. The Commissioners worked with them and gave them the go ahead to do that utilizing an interlocal agreement which was quite comprehensive, had quite a few stipulations in it and two addenda. It was a very complex negotiation since there were some environmental stipulations as well that required $300,000 to go toward smart growth principles. She said that environmental standards and parking standards were spelled out. Chair Carey commended Commissioner Gordon for trying to explain what went into the decision for the high school #3 including the location of it. There were a lot of different opinions and they did the best they could in trying to arrive at a decision that would be most acceptable to the School District and the Commissioners in the long run. He would like to commend Commissioner Gordon on her efforts. 2. School Capacity Calculations. Chair Carey stated that this is something that needs to be addressed in the next few months since the determination will need to be made early next year on this issue. This issue has been visited by them before so he asked the Manager to give a brief explanation. John Link pointed out that it is very timely to reach agreement on student membership capacity because we are now at a point where we can actually plan for schools beyond elementary school #10. Given the increased cast, far whatever reason, we experienced with not just school buildings, but other county buildings, it is critically important that we get a handle on what the costs are going to be far future buildings and future expansions. The county has a debt limit the Commissioners have established. We also have a commitment in the SAPFO to carefully plan for these facilities as relates to the towns and the county providing certificates of occupancy for new development to work in tandem. This really needs to be addressed within the next 2 months. Superintendent Pedersen said that class capacity has been discussed many times and that this issue will not be resolved tonight but will be returned to the collaboration committee. The question about who has the authority to lower class size and impact capacity, which then impacts funding issues, has also been discussed and is a very legitimate issue. SAPFO calls for a joint decision by both the County Commissioners and the School Boards about how to determine capacity while taking guidance from the state. There has also been discussion in the meetings about other school systems' compliance and what happens if we do not comply. The enclosed information from Alexis Schauss, Chief, Information and Analysis and Reporting for NCDPI indicates that there is widespread compliance with the 21-1 class size in K-3. It also confirms class sizes in CHCCS are some of the highest averages across the state. There is no waiver for non-compliance; however the penalty for willful non-compliance is the withholding of the superintendent's salary. All school districts are required by law to meet these standards. This does make a difference in our planning and that is the reason the managers are concerned about this issue. In our case, if we look at capacity for K-3, using 21-1 (the new state standard) versus 23-1 (the standard that is in SAPFO},the difference in just those four (4} grade levels is just under 300 students or roughly half a school. Superintendent Carraway said that because construction standards are part of the decision about capacity, it is important to start discussion on this early on. When she has looked at capacities that are lower in other districts, OCS decided to lower their standards early on in the lower grades, and keep them higher in the upper grades. It is just a matter of where you ChoOSe t0 focus. AI Hartkopf said that when they start looking at footprints of schools, real estate casts more in the southern part of the county. As to SAPFO and the capacity issue, Mebane did not